4 ms·

Turns out Amazon knew what they were doing when they were selling ebooks for cheaper. The publishers come in with agency pricing and boom, sales plummet.

by jonknee 11y ago

xlm1717 11y ago
This is what is really frustrating about the article. It spends the entire first half boosting print books like there is something magical about them that prevents them from being disrupted like movies and TV were. >E-books’ declining popularity may signal that publishing, while not immune to technological upheaval, will weather the tidal wave of digital technology better than other forms of media, like music and television. And only until near the end of the article does it reveal the actual reason why print is far from dead. >Higher e-book prices may also be driving readers back to paper. The publishers put print books on life support by artificially inflating the prices of e-books. They are just delaying the inevitable in my opinion.
- jonknee 11y ago
  Not surprising that print journalists in the publishing hub of the US are rooting for print.
- coliveira 11y ago
  There is in fact something magical about printed books :-) Well, not magic, but books are not just the medium of data transfer, they are also integral part of the reading experience. This is unlike music, where it doesn't matter if you're playing the content from a CD or transferring it over the network. The feeling of reading a book will always be different from using a reading device, it doesn't matter how to great the device is. Once the novelty of e-readers wears off, you will start to see a steady-state of sales on paper and other media for books. It seems that it is already happening. I, for example, read books in printed as well as electronic forms. I use e-readers for the convenience, but there are some types of books that don't work in electronic format in my personal opinion - and I think there are lots of people like me.
hullo 11y ago
That really depends on what you mean by that. With the initial release of the kindle, Amazon was selling major publisher new release ebooks for less than $10 by simply eating the difference between their wholesale cost and the markdown. Agency means Amazon gets a reliable 30% margin on them. All evidence supports that publishers are generally speaking selling exactly as many ebooks as they want to be selling, since they have granular control over pricing - it doesn't help digital readers, but it does keep a moat around their physical business, which ultimately serves print readers.
dlevine 11y ago
I buy most of my books on Kindle (like probably 90-95%). This includes a ton of indie books that are only available (or predominantly available) in electronic form. The only books I buy in print are books by major publishers, which are now more expensive on Kindle than they are in print (this is a new development in the past couple of years). Still, I find electronic more convenient (especially in the case of large books with lots of pages). In my opinion, this isn't going to hold up long-term. Amazon makes a good point when they say that publishers will make more money (in the form of more copies sold) at a lower price, and I think that major publishers will eventually come around (either that or they will perish). To some degree, digital distribution obviates the need for traditional publishers, and as more popular authors start ditching publishers entirely, I predict that eBook prices will gradually drop, and print books will resume their decline.

Turns out Amazon knew what they were doing when they were selling ebooks for cheaper. The publishers come in with agency pricing and boom, sales plummet.

by jonknee 11y ago

Turns out Amazon knew what they were doing when they were selling ebooks for cheaper. The publishers come in with agency pricing and boom, sales plummet.

xlm1717 11y ago

This is what is really frustrating about the article. It spends the entire first half boosting print books like there is something magical about them that prevents them from being disrupted like movies and TV were. >E-books’ declining popularity may signal that publishing, while not immune to technological upheaval, will weather the tidal wave of digital technology better than other forms of media, like music and television. And only until near the end of the article does it reveal the actual reason why print is far from dead. >Higher e-book prices may also be driving readers back to paper. The publishers put print books on life support by artificially inflating the prices of e-books. They are just delaying the inevitable in my opinion.

jonknee 11y ago
Not surprising that print journalists in the publishing hub of the US are rooting for print.
coliveira 11y ago
There is in fact something magical about printed books :-) Well, not magic, but books are not just the medium of data transfer, they are also integral part of the reading experience. This is unlike music, where it doesn't matter if you're playing the content from a CD or transferring it over the network. The feeling of reading a book will always be different from using a reading device, it doesn't matter how to great the device is. Once the novelty of e-readers wears off, you will start to see a steady-state of sales on paper and other media for books. It seems that it is already happening. I, for example, read books in printed as well as electronic forms. I use e-readers for the convenience, but there are some types of books that don't work in electronic format in my personal opinion - and I think there are lots of people like me.

hullo 11y ago

That really depends on what you mean by that. With the initial release of the kindle, Amazon was selling major publisher new release ebooks for less than $10 by simply eating the difference between their wholesale cost and the markdown. Agency means Amazon gets a reliable 30% margin on them. All evidence supports that publishers are generally speaking selling exactly as many ebooks as they want to be selling, since they have granular control over pricing - it doesn't help digital readers, but it does keep a moat around their physical business, which ultimately serves print readers.

dlevine 11y ago

I buy most of my books on Kindle (like probably 90-95%). This includes a ton of indie books that are only available (or predominantly available) in electronic form. The only books I buy in print are books by major publishers, which are now more expensive on Kindle than they are in print (this is a new development in the past couple of years). Still, I find electronic more convenient (especially in the case of large books with lots of pages). In my opinion, this isn't going to hold up long-term. Amazon makes a good point when they say that publishers will make more money (in the form of more copies sold) at a lower price, and I think that major publishers will eventually come around (either that or they will perish). To some degree, digital distribution obviates the need for traditional publishers, and as more popular authors start ditching publishers entirely, I predict that eBook prices will gradually drop, and print books will resume their decline.